Drawn by a Confederate soldier during the 1863 Siege of Suffolk, this dramatic drawing shows the Union gunboat USS Smith Briggs firing on Confederate forces. On Feb. 1, 1864, the ship was lost in a Union raid on Smithfield.

Drawn by a Confederate soldier during the 1863 Siege of Suffolk, this dramatic drawing shows the Union gunboat USS Smith Briggs firing on Confederate forces. On Feb. 1, 1864, the ship was lost in a Union raid on Smithfield. (Courtesy of the Virginia Historical Society)

Capt. Nathaniel Sturdivant led the Confederate forces that repulsed a Union raid and destroyed a Union gunboat on the Pagan River in the Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 1864 Battle of Smithfield.

Capt. Nathaniel Sturdivant led the Confederate forces that repulsed a Union raid and destroyed a Union gunboat on the Pagan River in the Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 1864 Battle of Smithfield. (Courtesy of William Turner)

Harassing fire was nothing new for the Union gunboats that patrolled Hampton Roads during the Civil War.

More than one Yankee sailor felt the sting of a rebel rifle fired from the shore, and — despite armor shields that rivaled anything seen on the Humvees of Iraq or the gun trucks of Vietnam — some of those wounds proved fatal.

Not until late January 1864, however, did a near-disastrous grounding sparked by shots from the James River's banks give Federal commanders reason to respond with unprecedented muscle.

Assembling four gunboats, an armed transport, two armed Navy launches and a detachment of infantry, cavalry and artillery, the Union landed at Smithfield and near Chuckatuck on Jan. 31 in a two-pronged sweep for the shooters.

But after some early success, the Smithfield contingent retreated back to town, where their exposed position on Main Street invited a Confederate attack so fiery and fortunate that — by the end of Feb. 1— more than 100 Yankees had been captured.

Left burning in the Pagan River was the battered wreck of the gunboat Smith Briggs, which was stripped and looted before exploding so violently that it shattered windows all over town.

"The Battle of Smithfield will not be found in any of our history books," noted Smithfield physician Herbert S. Southgate, whose grandfather took a gilded eagle figurehead as a trophy.

"But it surely must have been the most exciting and memorable (day) in the whole 200-odd years of our town's history."

A wig-wag war

Though the Confederates evacuated the south shore of the James after the Union capture of Norfolk in May 1862, it remained critical to the scouts and signalmen left behind to monitor the enemy's movements.

Building "wig-wag" towers to take advantage of the vista, they used flags to report on Yankee vessels entering and leaving Hampton Roads, landing at Fort Monroe and Newport News Point and moving on the James, Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers.

"From Cherry Point (on Chuckatuck Creek) you could see all the way to Norfolk and across to Old Point Comfort," says Albert P. Burckard Jr. of the Isle of Wight Sesquicentennial Committee.

"It was an unobstructed view."

Despite the abandonment of Forts Huger and Boykin, the surrounding countryside still held considerable value, too.

Loyal farmers continued to grow crops on thousands of acres that lay just beyond the reach of Union raiders, making the region an important source of food for the Confederate army and the capital at Richmond.

"It's odd that the Federals never moved against Smithfield before this," historian John V. Quarstein said.

"This area had all sorts of agricultural resources — and they were all being funneled to the South."

Fatal encounter

That relatively peaceful isolation ended on Jan. 30, 1864, when the Union gunboat Flora Temple entered Chuckatuck Creek in an attempt to divert attention from the landings at Smithfield and Holliday's Point on the Nansemond River.

Hampered by fog, however, the vessel ran aground, forcing Union commanders to delay the operation.

The resulting danger to the stranded ship was not imagined, Quarstein said.

Southern scouts quickly passed word to the Blackwater River line near Ivor, from which a column of artillery, infantry and cavalry marched overnight in the hopes of attacking one of the hated Yankee vessels.

"The gunboats were always a big thorn in the Confederates' side," he says. "So this opportunity couldn't be ignored."

When Capt. Nathaniel Sturdivant's men arrived early the following day, however, the Flora Temple had departed.

Both prongs of the Union attack were already steaming toward their landings.

By the time the graycoats turned around, Smithfield's Christ Church had emptied after reports of Yankee gunboats on the Pagan River.

Not long afterward, 90 men led by Capt. John C. Lee of the 99th New York Infantry disembarked at the town wharf, then marched up Main Street and headed toward Chuckatuck.

They'd logged nearly five miles before running into the advance elements of Sturdivant's column near an abandoned cotton mill and killing a sleeping Confederate cavalry trooper.

"Sturdivant's men had been marching since 8 p.m. the night before," Burckard said. "That's why the trooper was asleep on his horse."

Bringing up their 12-pound howitzer, the Federals fired down the hill at their disorganized foes, forcing them to withdraw after only 15 minutes.

The clash could be heard as far away as Chuckatuck, where the second Union force halted, then turned back to Holliday's Point after waiting two hours.

By then, Lee and his men had withdrawn, too, marching back to Smithfield instead of continuing on to Chuckatuck.

The captain would later report that local sources told him "heavy reinforcements were coming from Ivor Station" to cut him off.

"He was deep in Confederate territory," Quarstein said, "and he was worried about being isolated and captured."

Main Street duel

That evening the Federals "barricaded the main street with wagons, buggies, boxes, barrels and every conceivable thing we could secure, leaving a 'port hole' in the center for the use of our 12-pounder," one soldier later recalled.

Their fears came true the next morning, when Sturdivant appeared at the west end of Main Street with 200 infantry and cavalry and two artillery pieces.

Flexing his superior muscle, the Confederate officer demanded the bluecoats' surrender, then made such a show of force that Lee pulled back and re-barricaded his gun at the top of Wharf Hill.

Outnumbered and fearful of being enveloped, he was preparing his men for surrender when the Smith Briggs steamed into view, convincing the Federals to stand and fight.

Moments later, Sturdivant began firing down the street from Spratley's Hill, sparking a brisk exchange until two of his detachments emerged from the hidden ravines on either side of Lee's position.

"It all fell apart pretty rapidly after that," said David Sawyer of the Isle of Wight Sesquicentennial Committee.

"They really bugged out."

Fleeing down Wharf Hill, then east along the water, the Union men made a stand under the Smith Briggs' two 32-pound guns. But musket fire pouring down from Church Street left nearly two dozen killed or wounded.

Then a fortunate shot from a Confederate cannon at the bottom of Wharf Hill dealt the vessel a mortal blow, puncturing its steam chest and scalding numerous sailors.

Though Lee and several others escaped into the marshes, more than 100 Union men were captured.

The stricken gunboat exploded later that day, with two tons of powder fueling a violent blast that took out scores of windows.

Marched off to Ivor, then sent to Richmond by rail, many of the Union prisoners would end up in the newly opened yet soon to be notorious Confederate prison at Andersonville, Ga.

"They were some of the first ones marched in," Sawyer says.

"Most of them didn't march out."

Erickson can be reached at 757-247-4783. Find his Hampton Roads history stories at dailypress.com/history and Facebook.com/hrhistory.

When Union sailors steamed into Hampton Roads with the captured CSS Florida in mid-November 1864, many of their countrymen on the East Coast embraced news of the unexpected trophy as if they had been delivered.